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Cycle 3 (2014 Deadline) The impact of atmospheric black carbon and dust particles on the surface albedo of the glaciers in Tashkent Region, Uzbekistan PI: Narali Narbayev ( albedo.peer@gmail.com) and co-PI Mansur Amonov, Tashkent State Agrarian University (TSAU) U.S. Partner: James J. Schauer, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Michael Bergin, Georgia Institute of Technology
Project Dates: September 2014 to August 2016 During the last several decades air pollution caused by aerosols or particulate matter (PM) has been the cause of increasing concern in many regions of the world. In addition to their effects on health, atmospheric aerosols influence the radiation balance of the land-atmosphere system and consequently affect weather and climate by absorbing, reflecting, and diffusing radiation. Changes in climate and their impacts on glaciers and regional hydrology in Central Asia are expected to have dramatic adverse effects on Earth and human systems, with long-term adverse implications for water, food, health, culture, energy security, migration, and perhaps the political stability of the region. In Central Asia, studies have estimated the average rate of deglaciation to be about 0.6-0.8% per year by area and about 1% per year by volume. It is anticipated that the average annual temperature increase of less than 1°C per century has reduced the glacier surface in the mountains by more than one-third. The melting speed of the glaciers does not only depend on the environmental temperature. Light absorbing air particles including black carbon (BC) and dust from various widespread sources pose a special type of threat to the glaciers.
Researchers from TSAU, UW-Madison, and Georgia Tech will collaborate on this joint study of mountain glaciers in the Tashkent Region, Uzbekistan. The project seeks to understand the impacts of atmospheric BC and dust particles on the variability of the surface albedo of the glaciers. At this time, no data are available for the snow albedo measured at the surface of the glaciers of Tashkent Region. In addition, the physical and chemical characteristics of snow and its pollution by BC and dust particles, which are the driving factors controlling the albedo of the mountain glaciers, are not well understood. The field approach will be used, including sampling of PM and collection of daily measurements of snow spectral albedo, snow physical properties, surface snow light absorption properties, and the concentrations of trace elements, dust, and BC. The goal of the research project is a better understanding of mountain glaciers' albedo in the region. In particular, new data will be available for BC, PM, and dust, which will help estimate the glaciers’ melting rate and water availability for the region in the future, which are of great interest to agriculture specialists, air quality modelers, and policy makers. Central Asian countries, including Uzbekistan, have an extremely limited base of PM research. The project will help to improve the infrastructure for studying the impacts of particulate air pollution on glaciers in mountainous areas by research staff, as well as young Uzbek researchers and students. As a result of this work, scientists will be better equipped to plan and conduct further similar research programs and to move forward and continue research started under the current project.
The results of this project will yield a unique data set characterizing the variability of surface albedo, as well as the physical/chemical properties of the regional mountain snow and air and unique data about specific glaciers of Uzbekistan, thus improving the understanding of the processes controlling the surface radiative balance of the mountain glaciers. The research study will advance education, enhance international cooperation, and expand research capabilities. TSAU will continue research relating to particulate air pollution that had been initiated in the past and will also develop a new course on air pollution and control. The results of the study will raise awareness of related issues among the public and policymakers, which will help accelerate the adoption and implementation of measures to reduce environmental pollution and wasteful use of water and energy, and they will encourage more sustainable forms of water use and agricultural development to ensure sustainable development.
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